1.
Being handsome wasn't much of a burden. It worked for me.
David Bailey
'Having good looks was not a difficult burden to bear; I found it beneficial.'
2.
It takes a lot of imagination to be a good photographer. You need less imagination to be a painter because you can invent things. But in photography everything is so ordinary; it takes a lot of looking before you learn to see the extraordinary.
David Bailey
3.
Rockers are the nicest people to photograph. They have no inhibitions.
David Bailey
4.
I never cared for fashion much, amusing little seams and witty little pleats: it was the girls I liked.
David Bailey
5.
Fortunately I didn't get educated because if I'd got educated I'd be an educated fool now.
David Bailey
6.
I never tried to revolutionise photography; I just do what I do and keep my fingers crossed that people will like it.
David Bailey
7.
All pictures are unnatural. All pictures are sad because they're about dead people. Paintings you don't think of in a special time or with a specific event. With photos I always think I'm looking at something dead.
David Bailey
8.
Anybody can be a great photographer if they zoom in enough on what they love.
David Bailey
9.
The skull is nature's sculpture.
David Bailey
10.
A positive attitude can really make dreams come true - it did for me.
David Bailey
11.
To get rich, you have to be making money while you're asleep.
David Bailey
12.
The best advice I ever got was that knowledge is power and to keep reading.
David Bailey
13.
I know everything should be photographed. It helps me make sense of my existence.
David Bailey
14.
The reason I did fashion was it was the only way to get paid to do anything creative. You couldn't support yourself as an 'artist' - I hate that word. The only way you could be 'arty' was as a fashion photographer, because it still had a certain amount of integrity involved.
David Bailey
15.
I didn't try and do fashion pictures. I tried to do portraits of girls wearing dresses.
David Bailey
16.
You can't really copy what I do because I don't do anything.
David Bailey
17.
Fashion often starts off beautiful and becomes ugly, whereas art starts off ugly sometimes and becomes beautiful.
David Bailey
18.
It is a sign of a dull nature to occupy oneself deeply in matters that concern the body; for instance, to be over much occupied about exercise, about eating and drinking, about easing oneself, about sexual intercourse.
David Bailey
19.
Being trendy is dangerous. I've never been trendy, which is why I've never really fallen out of favour.
David Bailey
20.
The only thing they can't teach you at art school is art.
David Bailey
21.
I hate men who are in touch with their feminine side.
David Bailey
22.
My friends are all megalomaniacs - from Damien Hirst to Jack Nicholson - all of them.
David Bailey
23.
I love learning new techniques.
David Bailey
24.
I was ten when I got my first serious beating. It was rough.
David Bailey
25.
People want security in this insecure world.
David Bailey
26.
Being dyslexic, I was told that I was an idiot all the time.
David Bailey
27.
I was dyslexic, so I was put in the silly class at school.
David Bailey
28.
I always go for simplicity.
David Bailey
29.
I don't feel very optimistic in London.
David Bailey
30.
I'm not really one for regrets.
David Bailey
31.
When I die I want to go to Vogue.
David Bailey
32.
I didn't know a time when there wasn't a war because I spent all my time from the age of two or three to eight in a coal cellar really.
David Bailey
33.
Girls are more attractive to me than dresses.
David Bailey
34.
I like change. There's something Buddhist about it - continuous change is wonderful.
David Bailey
35.
I've been used by women all my life, fortunately.
David Bailey
36.
In France they don't think I'm difficult.
David Bailey
37.
I don't think global warming is to do with us, I think it's a natural circle. I don't think a few Ferraris make that much difference.
David Bailey
38.
I didn't know I was going to live for 50 years. It has come as a shock.
David Bailey
39.
London changes because of money. It's real estate. If they can build some offices or expensive apartments they will, it's money that changes everything in a city.
David Bailey
40.
I left school on my 15th birthday.
David Bailey
41.
I am not responsible for all the journalists in the past that have told lies.
David Bailey
42.
I don't think my work does reflect my nationality - I don't like the idea of nationalism.
David Bailey
43.
I had a terrible time with feminists in the Seventies. They hated me, those women. I think they hated everything.
David Bailey
44.
I'm never shocked, I'm not the shockable type!
David Bailey
45.
Sometimes I still can't believe my luck.
David Bailey
46.
The Sixties was a time of breaking down class barriers, although I think class still exists today in some areas.
David Bailey
47.
I don't like any sport except boxing and bull fighting.
David Bailey
48.
You have to kind of be invisible when you photograph children, so you use a longer lens.
David Bailey
49.
I hate being so nostalgic about the Sixties.
David Bailey
50.
The trouble with people like Tony Blair is they get confused, they think intelligence is education when they're two different things.
David Bailey
